Editor's letter

Welcome to the new edition of Just Food’s quarterly digital magazine. 

Much of the spotlight – and heat – on methane has focused on livestock but it’s important to remember rice is a significant contributor to those emissions. And now the scrutiny on that sector is starting to intensify. 

As David Burrows explores in our cover story, major rice producers are working on ways to reduce their footprint, including studying soils and, quite simply, periodically draining water from paddy fields. But lots more work is needed to tackle what some are calling the “silent source” of methane. 

Elsewhere in our last edition of the year, we ask M&A bankers for their thoughts on how deal-making could take shape in 2025, analyse one of the more recent notable acquisitions in pet food and dig into some of the debates surrounding Nutri-Score, the European front-of-pack labelling system.

Dean Best, managing editor